Happy Monday! Today I have a review of The Travelling Cat Chronicles, publishing via Berkley on October 23, 2018. Thanks to Berkley for the invitation to the blog tour, and it was a pleasure to read this book with some book friends.

My Thoughts:

If you are an animal lover, read this book. Especially if you are a cat lover, don’t miss it! If you enjoy a sentimental, loving, perfectly told story, I implore you to read The Travelling Cat Chronicles!

From the beginning, when I read Nana’s voice, I knew the author, Hiro Arikawa, has been loved by a cat. We’ve all read the story about “man’s best friend,” the dog, but what about the love of a cat?

Nana is a stray cat living in a parking garage who slowly becomes affiliated with the owner of a van he sleeps on. The owner, Satoru, begins feeding him, and when Nana is hit by a car, he needs help.Satoru rescues him, and Nana becomes his cat. They live together happily for several years.

Much later, Satoru takes Nana on a road trip to see several of his childhood friends, and all the while Nana is wondering what is happening because it appears Satoru is searching for a new home for him.

The Travelling Cat Chronicles is storytelling perfection. Curl up with this book, and I promise you, you will devour it in one afternoon. It is heartfelt, poignant, endearing, and everything you could want in a book.

On a personal note, Nana loves his Satoru the way I believe my cat loves me, and to feel that devotion through Nana’s voice is one of the most masterful things I’ve read in a work of fiction.

Thank you to Berkley for the complimentary ARC and the blog tour invite. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis:

Sometimes you have to leave behind everything you know to find the place you truly belong…

Nana the cat is on a road trip. He is not sure where he’s going or why, but it means that he gets to sit in the front seat of a silver van with his beloved owner, Satoru. Side by side, they cruise around Japan through the changing seasons, visiting Satoru’s old friends. He meets Yoshimine, the brusque and unsentimental farmer for whom cats are just ratters; Sugi and Chikako, the warm-hearted couple who run a pet-friendly B&B; and Kosuke, the mournful husband whose cat-loving wife has just left him. There’s even a very special dog who forces Nana to reassess his disdain for the canine species.

But what is the purpose of this road trip? And why is everyone so interested in Nana? Nana does not know and Satoru won’t say. But when Nana finally works it out, his small heart will break…

I know how you feel, Gemma! It’s so hard to get to all the books we want to read! I hope you love it one you get to it. Thanks so much! 😂 They were custom made from a shop on Etsy called CM Bookmarks! She does an amazing job, doesn’t she?! ♥️

This sounds so sweet and charming!! I love stories told from an animal’s PoV but I’ve never read one with a cat protagonist before, and this looks absolutely wonderful. Maybe I’ll save it for a gloomy day?

I am a cat lovers. I had my first cat when I was a tiny shy kid. and yet I ended up with four dogs, since I married my husband. sigh sigh…I do love dogs but cats are magical creatures from another dimension…. 🙂 great review, as always!

I love that, Ink. Cats really are magical, and their love is huge! We always had both growing up, and I love both equally, but right now, we have a 16 year old kitty who wants to be our only and she’s been waiting a long time to be the only one. ♥️

I read this book earlier this year and I really liked it and found it to be gently sad, positive, poignant and sweet all in one. I would never have picked up ‘cat’ books but then I got a cat and so my Mum got me this book and I’m really glad she did! I definitely think it’s one for cat lovers because it encapsulates what I believe their general attitude to life and their owners is.

My review of it is here and the only reason I’m sharing it is because I’ve included a ton of pictures of my cat in it and I’m like, crazy obsessed with her and want others to love her too…. 😉

Gerry, I would LOVE to see your cat! I’ll be checking out you review just as soon as I finish I commenting. ♥️ My cat was down at the bottom of this post, and if you viewed in the reader, I don’t think it shows?

This is definitely a wonderful cat lovers’ book, Gerry! I’m so happy you loved it too!

Oh I didn’t see your cat picture as it didn’t show in reader! She’s gorgeous! I’ve become such a cat person in recent years to the point where my friends are thinking that I’m becoming a crazy cat lady and well.. they aren’t wrong. I want to read ‘If Cats Disappeared from the World’ because it seems to fit a similar theme to The Travelling Cat Chronicles.

This books sounds amazing, I love cats so much, and reading from a cat’s perspective must be amazing and endearing. This sounds really heartwarming and I’ll definitely check it out. And your girl is so sweet and cute! She’s looking very fresh for 16! May the two of you have many more years together ❤ ❤

Thank you, Carolina, and I am happy to find another cat lover! I hope you get a chance to read this one. Thanks for your compliments on my girl. She really does look young and healthy but unfortunately she’s had a time of it with her health recently. I hope you are right and we get plenty more time together. Thank you for that. ♥️

Oh my goodness, I have to read this book! I have been a cat person since I was a little girl and have always had cats…usually more than 1, but we now just have Chloe as our others have grown older and passed away. I know that I will love this (I just went and grabbed it off EW and broke my ARC ban!). Love your review and will read it as soon as I get a chance! ❤

Thanks so much, Steph! You will LOVE Nana’s story! I’m so happy to hear you are a cat person, too. I was just reading about your horse farm. Quick funny story. Our Tennessee Walker was actually my older brother’s. When we went to the horse farm to buy him, I HAD to have something, too (I was about 10 years old), and I came home with a barn cat I named Miss Kitty (because she sadly had no name, and I felt it important to continue calling her kitty and not change her name! 😂) The owners really didn’t want to let her go…she was a super sweet cat, but somehow they were convinced. So horses and cats- they go perfectly well togethe. By the way, I already had two other cats at home, a couple dogs, and a guinea pig! I can’t wait to read your thoughts on this one. ♥️ xo

Your cat is gorgeous! The book sounds delightful but I can’t read books about animals. I’m already upset at hearing that Nana was hit by a car! I still haven’t got over a picture book about a foal, Stormy, that broke my heart when I was three, and I never made it through Black Beauty. Horrible things happening to humans are fine, though… 😂

Thanks, FF! Thanks for your compliment on my sweet girl, too. I am pretty sure I know about the Stormy of which you speak if it’s a Marguerite Henry book. Those books took place not too far from where I live, and I actually saw the ponies swimming across the water in Chincoteague as a child. I don’t like the idea at all now, even if it’s something they “have” to do. I was obsessed with Black Beauty. I got up super early to watch it, but I didn’t know or remember that anything bad happened? Don’t tell me! 😂 😊

What a beautiful review, Jennifer. The story sounds heartwarming and your review added to the emotions. Your cat is so beautiful and sounds like such a wonderful companion. The book sounds amazing and I am especially intrigued by the personification of the cat as a character 🙂